“Saving” The Indians

“Saving” The Indians What the white reformers hoped to achieve with the breakup of the reservations and with schools was assimilation. The saw that through assimilation that the Indians could be “white”. In instructions to Indian Agents and Superintendents of Indian Schools. The source states that the people thought that if the Indians were destined to become part of national life and not viewed as Indians but to make them Americans was through a system of schooling for the Indian youth. They also hoped to destroy the mind set of common ownership of land by breaking the land up into allotments for families to farm on. The reforms were aimed at to destroy the Indian culture. The main premise of the new policies being passed was to show that the Native American culture had zero value and meaning. If reformers could get the Indians to understand this then they could force the Indians to accept the white culture and would successfully be brought into American life. They would then be viewed as individuals instead of people seeing them as a separate race identity. Because the Indian way of life was being slowly destroyed this gave the white reformers the power to support the reformers policies. They did this by almost creating a reward system to the Indians that followed. Through Education they could “kill the Indian and save the man” as Richard Henry Pratt stated. The hope of creating these schools and educating the Indian children was to destroy the cultural identity of the Indians. Once they had the children at school they could start the process of civilizing the Indians. They gave them new clothing and cut their hair. The Indians were also given new names. Names like Maggie, Henry, and John. Also they changed the Indians Diet. Although this was not successful. Because of the actions that these schools took for assimilation most kids died. Another way the reformers hoped for the assimilation of the Indians was that they had to end the idea of common